Did Georgia's Kirby Smart take shot at Dan Mullen recruiting after Bulldogs win vs. Florida?

Georgia coach Kirby Smart anchored his squad to a 43-20 victory over rival Florida on Saturday, but that wasn't his only triumph of the day. Smart also took what appeared to be a veiled shot at former Gator coach Dan Mullen in his postgame news conference, particularly on his attitude toward recruiting.

Mullen picked the Gators to upset the Bulldogs ahead of Saturday's matchup, but was quickly proven wrong as an avalanche of Georgia scores buried Florida. The Bulldogs scored 36 unanswered points after the Gators went up 7-0, essentially ending the game with an entire quarter left to play.

Smart after the game said he doesn't go out of his way to listen to outside noise or social media, but heard that numerous people, picked the Gators to win. With the win already in tow, he used his moment of victory to seemingly take a dig at the former Florida coach.

"I don't see it or hear it, but I know it's out there," Smart said when asked about Mullen's prediction. "Somebody texted me before the game, all these people predicting we're not going to win today. Golly, where's that coming from? Supposed to be my friend. He didn't like to recruit though."

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Smart's dig at Mullen could be a reference to the latter's mindset toward recruiting. Mullen in November 2021 dismissed a question about a talent gap between his team and Georgia following a 34-7 defeat by the Bulldogs (and which was brought up after Smart sang the praises of recruiting when building a program).

Mullen was later asked again about recruiting, and he offered a terse response:

“We’re in the season right now,” he said. “We’ll do recruiting after the season. When it gets to recruiting time, we can talk about recruiting. Next question.”

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Mullen was fired later that month after a 5-6 start, despite trying to clarify what he meant after his initial comments.

“I'd like to touch on something for all the Gator Nation and all our great fans, something that was taken out of context in Monday's press conference,” he said. “As it pertains to recruiting — our staff recruits nonstop. We grind at recruiting all day every day. We're always recruiting and working the best to get great players that fit the Gator Standard and bring them here to our program.”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Did Kirby Smart take shot at ex-Florida coach Dan Mullen's recruiting?